Abdullah, when a man dies because of oppression

Abdalaziz Alhamza “RBSS”

People were giving Abu Abdullah the good bye look while they were burying him; it was also the good bye look for his son, Abdullah, who was arrested by ISIS because of what he said when his father died.
Abdullah took his father in a rented car and moved north toward the Turkey hoping to find a cure for his sick father there.

Throughout the rough road, Abdullah looked at his father’s tired face, kissed his hand, wiped his forehead and prayed for his recovery. When they reached Sharaqraq checkpoint, one of the worst Kurdish checkpoints, the following conversation happened between Abdullah and the checkpoint soldiers  Where are you going? – We are going to Turkey, my father is sick and we are in an emergency situation. – Where are you from? – We are from Raqqa. – Go back, ISIS supporters are not allowed to enter Rojava!!. – But please sir, we are civilians and my father is in a real bad situation. – Shut up and go back from you came or I will kill you.)

Where to go? The driver asked, but Ahmed did not answer, he did not know where to go either. Ahmed became very weak; he did not have the power to decide what to do with his very sick father, Without thinking, the car went west towards Aleppo along with the Euphrates; the car was passing checkpoint after another all belong to ISIS.

The road to Aleppo’s Northern countryside, which is under FSA control, was filled with ISIS checkpoints unlike the road to Northern Raqqa, towards the Kurdish areas, which does not have such number of checkpoints. This makes no sense!
“This is the last checkpoint; we will pass it and reach the FSA areas” the driver said to Abdullah.

– Where are you going, brother? – We are going to Turkey, my father is so sick. – Do you have passing permission? – No we do not, it was an emergency situation. – Why you did not go to the hospitals in Mosul? You want to benefit the infidels? If it is my call, I will slaughter you all. Go back to the Islamic State’s hospitals or I will slaughter you.

Back to Raqqa, Abdullah realized that his father died when he reached his house. All the neighbor cried for Abu Abdullah, the 60 years old man, and Abdullah cried his father a thousand times, his father who died between the checkpoints.
In the next day, people came to the funeral and Ahmed started shouting and saying what in his mind, after that Hosba patrols took arrested him for what he was saying.
Identity card, pants, shirt and a purse that is all what left of Ahmed, ISIS fighters left these things in front of Ahmed’s house without even telling the family that he died.

He died since ISIS entered the city; his life was only a body without a soul. All the people of Raqqa are dying sad, they are crying for their city and their relatives and neightbours.

media activist from the city of Raqqa, student at the Faculty of Law at the University of the Euphrates. Director of the Media Office of Raqqa, founding member of "Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently", founding member of the documentary project of "Sound and Picture". I work in documenting violations committed by Assad's regime and ISIS group and extremist organizations inside the city of Raqqa, as I work in programming, design and visual media. I hold a certificate of coach in digital security, and a certificate of journalist coach, and a certificate in documenting violations against human rights, and a certificate in electronic advocacy. I underwent a training under the supervision of "Cyber-Arabs" in collaboration with the Institute for War and Peace "IWPR", about the management of electronic websites and leadership of advocacy campaigns, and a training of press photography under the supervision of the photojournalist "Peter Hove Olesen".